Thanks Antoinette!

Today I spent most of the day with Jennifer Chuang - the friend I met at the GSA bagel breakfast when I first started grad school. She turned out to be a neighbor and a good friend. She is in the process of doing this Vitamin E study and this morning she had another blood draw. She called around 1:30PM and said that she needed wine and I promptly invited her over. However, I had yet to get out of my pjs. I spent the morning doing the last bit of grading and catching up on - sigh - Ugly Betty episodes.

So, I hung up the phone and quickly got into the shower. Jennifer didn't show until almost an hour later so I got a good bit of dishes done and the Three Blind Moose Chardonnay was nice and chilled. After we chatted and drank the ENTIRE bottle, we had this great idea to check out the going out of business sale at Gottshalk's. The department store in University Mall. I had never been there and the store was pretty empty. We each bought some clothes and I also replaced my umbrella and after a quick jaunt to The Old Teahouse for milk tea, we went back to Jennifer's house to cook dinner.

I have to say I love cooking with friends. I always wind up cooking things I never would cook on my own and it's usually super tasty. Jennifer had some frozen mahi mahi filets that we marinated in oil, shallots, onions, cilantro and ginger. I also made some soft polenta and used an old bag of veggies and sauteed them in sesame oil, soy sauce, marsala and garlic. I also had an old yam that we threw on the grill while the fish defrosted and got all yummy in it's marinade.

The weird thing is that once everything was done, I still was not hungry. So we decided to take a walk in the Arboretum. When we arrived at Jennifer's house we ran into Dave Moschler, the musical director from Oklahoma! who just happens to be her neighbor. He reminded me about the Tony Awards. I never knew, but the award is named for actress Antoinette Perry who founded the American Theatre Wing.

Anyway. Once we returned to Jennifer's we packed up the food and returned to my house to watch since she does not have TV. It was a lovely smorgesbord, but the entertainment was not that great. I usually cry like a baby watching the award show. But not this year. The sound was bad, the clothes were just okay and the performances were lackluster. Neil Patrick Harris did have a great closing number and the cast of Hair was pretty stellar. But that's about it. About halfway through I got a text from Dave that he was looking to watch as well. So, soon enough we had a little party.

By the end of the evening, I agreed to take Dave into the Bay tomorrow and in return he is going to help me prep for my On the Town callback. Hopefully it will be more inspiring than the Tony's!